WBPE releases TET notification for primary teachers' recruitment

Kolkata: The West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBPE) on Monday released the notification regarding the Teacher's Eligibility Test (TET) for recruiting primary teachers.

The notification of WBPE made it clear that only candidates with two years teachers' training will be eligible to appear for the examination. However, the date for the examination was not declared on Monday.

"The notification has been brought out strictly following the rules framed by National Council of Teacher's Education (NCTE). A candidate applying online for the post of primary teacher needs to secure at least 50 percent marks in the Higher Secondary Examinations and has to complete two years teachers' training. Certificate of the two years training is mandatory and no short cut training will be accepted," Manik Bhattacharjee, chairman of WBPE said.

For SC/ ST and other backward class students, 45 percent in Higher Secondary examination is mandatory. "Online applications would be accepted from Tuesday, October 10 to October 29," Bhattacharjee said.

General students will have to secure 60 percent marks in the TET examination while SC/ST students will have to secure 55 percent to be eligible for teaching.

A senior official of the department said that if a teacher accidentally dies while on duty his immediate heir will get the chance for recruitment. However, the candidate in this case needs to sit for TET examination and get 55 percent marks. Two year's teacher's training is also mandatory for such candidates," he said.

The WBPE, however, did not announce the number of vacancies. In 2015, the total vacancies were 44,992 and 44,000 were recruited. Every year there is a vacancy of around 15,000. Considering this, the vacancy will be more than 30,000. All district inspectors have been directed to send a list of the vacancies in the schools of their respective districts. Once we get the list, the total number of vacancies will be announced," a Board official said.

This is for the third time that TET examination is being conducted under the rule of the Trinamool Congress government in Bengal. There were only 15 government teachers' training colleges across the state before 2011 but now there is as many as 631 such institutes.

There has been a number of legal hurdles in the path of TET examinations in the last few years, however, the state government has been able to ensure the quality of education in the primary level so the dropout rate has gone down considerably.